Reset
by inkheart9459
Summary: When Regina wakes up without Emma beside her she knows something is wrong. When Emma's things are completely gone from the house she suspects the worst, Emma's left her for good. But when Emma comes knocking on her door just as confused as she is they realize they might have a bigger problem.


This is my contribution to Swan Queen Week Summer 2014, Day 3 Amnesia. I took the prompt a little off the beaten path, but I hope you guys will like it. So read, enjoy, review if inclined, you know the drill.

* * *

"I wish," a little voice said, filtering out into the quiet night through an open window. It trailed off into nothingness and all that was left the pounding of a hopeful heart.

* * *

Regina blinked open her eyes and yawned, stretching out and reaching for the other side of the bed. She frowned when she found it empty. Where in the world was Emma? She was never the first one up. She sat up, intent on investigating when she stopped. Something about the room around her looked off.

She squinted. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but something was different. She looked around and none of their family photos were on the walls. Another few seconds of looking and realized that none of Emma's things period were scattered around the room. What in the world was going on?

Regina got out of bed quickly. She had to get to the bottom of this. She looked around the house, through every single room, but there was no hint of Emma anywhere. It was just as in her bedroom, no photographs, no stray articles of clothing, no sign that the woman lived there at all. Dread started to creep into the pit of her stomach.

There was only one real solution to this mystery. She had to call Emma. Emma would know exactly what was going on and why all her things were gone. She just hoped against hope that it wasn't for the obvious reason. That Emma hadn't left her after all these years. She hadn't worried about that in ages. Emma had settled down and grown roots so deep that she was sure that the other woman couldn't leave Storybrooke.

But not leaving Storybrooke didn't necessarily not leaving her. Oh god. What had she done to merit that? She wasn't the Evil Queen anymore. She wasn't cold and unforgiving. She had changed, Emma had been part of the catalyst for that change. She loved her so completely she couldn't imagine doing anything to the other woman. Well, more than their usual fights about mundane things, but every couple had those.

Her hands trembled as she made her way up the stairs. There was one way to find out. Surely even if Emma had left her she would answer the phone and tell her. Emma owed her that much after ten years.

Regina walked into her room almost in slow motion. She felt like this was a dream of some sort. A horrible nightmare that she would wake up from at any moment to find herself wrapped in Emma's arms with blonde hair covering her face, tickling her in the worst way that she'd always complain about, but secretly loved. It made her feel safe, all wrapped up in Emma in every single way.

She picked up her phone and dialed, and redialed, and once more before she actually managed to punch in the right number, her hands were shaking so badly. She took a deep breath before raising the phone to her ear. Almost immediately an automated voice came on telling her that the number she had dialed was disconnected. Regina looked at the screen of the phone confused. Why would Emma's number be disconnected? She double checked that the number she dialed was right, but she knew it was. She'd had it memorized for years now.

She dropped her phone to the floor, not bothering to hang up. There was only one reason Emma's phone could be disconnected; Emma didn't want to be found or contacted. Regina collapsed to the ground. So this would be how it ended, suddenly with no warning. Emma, the valiant idiot, probably thought it was better this way, that it was easier, that it would hurt less this way, sort of like ripping off a Band-Aid. But God, did it hurt worse this way. She'd had no time to prepare, no time to raise up her walls again so she could protect herself.

Regina scooped herself off the floor. But for now she couldn't think about that. Aria would be up soon and she needed to make breakfast for her little girl. God, how was she supposed to tell a five year old that her other mother had just left her? Was there a good way to go about it? A proper way? She didn't think so. Oh, what was left of her heart was going to shatter when her little princess realized what she was saying and started to cry.

She padded down the stairs on autopilot and walked into the kitchen. Regina went about fixing pancakes, Aria's favorite. It may be a little bit of bribery on her part, but she figured that the girl should have what little happiness she could before her world came crashing down around her. Emma was Aria's world. The woman hung the moon and stars for her. To find out that she was just gone would crush her. If a little syrup and fluffy pastry made it even marginally better than so be it.

Her heart leapt into her throat as she heard a key sliding home in the front door. It couldn't be Emma. Why would it be if she had her phone disconnected? But who else would have a key? Henry should be in Boston at school for another couple months. There was no way in hell she'd let the Charming idiots have a key so they could just waltz right into her home. She tolerated them, but that was over the line. So it had to be Emma, but it couldn't be. Regina was stuck standing watching a pancake burn on the griddle because she couldn't move.

Then the pounding on the door started and she was startled into motion. She managed to dump the ruined pancake into the trash before turning off the burner and hurrying from the room as the pounding intensified. Whoever it was, was going to wake Aria, and her little girl was a terror when she was woken before she was ready.

She wrenched open the door, ready to shout at whoever was knocking when she stopped. Emma was there on her porch. Emma. Was there. Some of the tension in her frame relaxed.

The look in Emma's eyes was wild. "Regina?" She asked, almost as if she didn't believe the woman was standing in front of her. "Why doesn't my key work?"

Regina scowled. "What?" She looked down at the piece of metal that was still sticking out of the door. She reached out and tried to turn it but it went nowhere. "I haven't had the locks changed, I don't understand."

"And why is your phone disconnected?"

"What? My phone isn't disconnected. I just used it to call you. Your phone is the one that's disconnected."

Emma pulled her phone out of her pocket and turned it on. "Does this look like it's disconnected to you?" She pulled up the internet and it loaded easily.

"I don't know, Emma. All I know is that I tried to call you and the electronic message said it was disconnected."

Emma shook her head. "Gimme your phone."

Regina handed it over and Emma dialed her numbed and pulled her head back a minute later. "What the hell?"

"Don't ask me dear."

Emma handed back the phone. "I don't know what's going on. First I wake up in a completely new apartment that has all of my shit in it, obviously not beside you at all. Then I try to call you and your phone's disconnected. Next my key doesn't work in the front door of my own damn home. Then my phone is disconnected when it obviously isn't. What the hell is happening, Regina? Is this more magical fuckery? I thought we were past all of this when we got Henry back from Neverland."

"I have no idea. I can cast some spells to figure out if all of this is magical in origin."

"Good. Ok." Emma took a deep breath. She grabbed Regina's hand and visibly relaxed. "You need help to cast those spells?"

"Well, you know my magic is always stronger when you're involved."

Emma smiled. "Ok."

She stepped inside the house and shut the door behind her. Together the two of them walked to Regina's study. Regina let go of Emma's hand with a last squeeze and set to dragging magical ingredients from their appointed cabinets, setting them on her desk. She organized them into three piles, one for a spell to detect curses, one to detect other, lighter forms of magic, and one that detected a very broad spectrum of things to pick up what the other two might have missed.

Emma worked steadily beside her, combining what she was told to, blue glow of magic surrounding her hands. Regina felt so much better now that the other woman was beside her and just as confused as she was why they had woken up apart. Regina never felt right without the blonde beside her. There was no way they'd be separate for a night willingly unless it was something greatly important.

"I really didn't like not waking up beside you," Emma almost whispered while mixing a few crushed herbs into a paste. She always did have a way of almost reading Regina's mind.

"Me either."

"You really think this will tell us if whatever is happening to us is magical?"

"I do, or at least, it's the best I can do in this situation. Rumple might be able to come up with some spells that are much more specific, but those would require actually knowing a bit more about our situation than we do now to really be effective. Otherwise it would be just a battery of tests that are all a shot in the dark."

Emma nodded, looking over at Regina, trust in her eyes. "Well then, this will be good enough."

Regina smiled wanly at her and set back to work. Together they made quick work of the three spells and Regina watched carefully as they were all cast, looking for any subtle signs in them to indicate just what was going on, but there were none, not even the slightest flicker to indicate that anything magical was going on at all.

Regina turned to Emma, brow scrunched. "It's not magic according to these tests, but I'm not sure what could affect us in this way. It's like we have completely new lives that we just don't remember starting. The odds of us both hitting our heads and having the exact same sort of amnesia are astronomical."

"What do we do now?"

"Mommy?" a little voice called.

"Aria?" Regina called back immediately, walking towards the sound of her daughter's voice.

The patter of little running feet came down the hall and as soon as she opened her study door Aria was hugging her legs. Regina stooped and gathered the girl in her arms, grunting a little at the weight. She was getting too big to pick up, but the feeling of her little princess in her arms was hard to give up. Emma came up behind her and laid a hand on the shoulder that Aria wasn't resting her head on.

"Morning, Air Bear." Regina heard the soft smile in the other woman's voice.

"Momma?" She felt the little girl's head rocket off her shoulder to look at her other mother. "You're here!" Her little voice was a pleased shriek.

"Why wouldn't I be?"

Aria wiggled enough that Regina had to put her down. She immediately rushed to her other mother and hugged her hard enough that Emma would've lost her balance if not for Regina's stabilizing hand. Emma ruffled the girl's light brown hair.

"Not that I don't love the love, Bear, but you're acting like you haven't seen me in days, not hours."

"Cause I haven't."

Both Emma and Regina's faces scrunched at that. They looked at each other, but it was clear that the other knew nothing. Regina squatted so she could look in her daughter's face.

"What do you mean, Aria?"

Aria shook her head. "If I say then it won't be true anymore."

"Say what?" Emma pried her legs out of the little girl's death grip and joined Regina kneeling on the floor, bare inches separating them.

Aria just shook her head again.

"Do you know what happened to Mommy and Momma?" Regina prodded gently.

Aria hesitated for a minute before nodding.

Emma reached out resting a hand on the girl's shoulder. "You have to tell us, Bear. You know what we've told you about magic, that it can have a price. If this has something to do with magic we need to know so we can deal with the price."

Tears started to well in Aria's eyes. "But if I tell then it won't be good anymore."

Regina reached out and drew her daughter into her embrace. "What won't be good anymore?"

She shook her head into Regina's shoulder. "Please, Mommy, don't make me tell. I like Momma being here!"

Regina looked over at Emma, her heart breaking slowly as their daughter cried into her shoulder. Emma came forward and sandwiched Aria between them in a hug. The little girl's cries started to slow a little.

"Momma's not going anywhere."

Aria stopped crying with a final shudder. "Promise?"

"Pinky promise."

The girl wiggled until both her mother's pulled back. She turned and offered her pinky towards Emma with a serious face. Emma stuck her pinky out and twisted it around the little girl's. Aria smiled before turning to Regina.

"And you won't make her go?"

Regina's face scrunched. "Of course not, Princess."

She offered her pinky to Regina who did the same. "Good." She smiled widely at the two of them. "I'm hungry."

Regina started to laughed. "She really is your child dear." She looked over at Emma with a fond smile.

"What, food is important!" She stuck out her tongue playfully. "She's yours when she keeps making us buy her clothes and shoes."

"I hardly think pink clothing qualifies, dear."

"Oh sure, it's pink now, but when she's older, she's going to want the whole closet full of Prada like you do, and then we'll see who's laughing."

Regina rolled her eyes. "We'll see, dear."

Aria looked on with a huge smile on her face. She reached forward and pulled both of her mother's hands. "Come on, Mommys, pancakes?" She sent a hopeful look at Regina.

Regina looked at Emma, a contemplative look in her eyes. "Aria, why don't you go get dressed. We'll go to Granny's today for breakfast."

"Yes!" The little girl screamed before rocketing off towards her room.

"No running in the house!" both Emma and Regina called after her. They looked at each other and smiled.

"Why Granny's? Usually you're chiding me for suggesting that our five year old have anything but 'nutritious home cooked meals.'"

"Because, dear, maybe we can find someone else who knows what's going on with us who won't break down."

Emma's face broke out in an 'aha" look. "Oh, ok, duh."

"Your investigative skills astound me, Sheriff."

Emma flicked Regina. "Hey!"

Regina shook her head and walked up the stairs to help Aria get ready.

* * *

When the three of them walked into Granny's all eyes were on them. Regina hadn't felt anything like it in years, since the Evil had been dropped from her title not long after Neverland. Emma went on acting like nothing was wrong and walked to their normal booth, slipping in and patting the space beside her, looking over at Regina. The brunette walked over, trying to ignore the stares, clutching Aria's hand a little tighter than was probably advisable.

The conversation resumed as Aria bounced into her own side of the booth smiling widely at the two of them, but the eyes on them remained. Emma leaned over and rested her head on Regina's shoulder.

"You ever get the feeling we're being watched?" Emma whispered in her ear.

"Gee, dear, where would you ever get that impression?" She turned to look in bright green eyes. "But it does indicate that something drastic between us has changed if seeing us together elicits this sort of reaction."

Emma nodded. "Hey, Air Bear?"

The little girl looked up. "What Momma?"

"Can you stay here for a second while Mommy and I go talk to Auntie Ruby?"

"I wanna talk to Auntie Ruby, too!" A small pout graced the girl's face.

"I'm sure you can talk to her when she takes our order in a couple minutes, don't worry."

The girl huffed and folded her arms over her chest. "Fine."

"Thank you, dear." Regina smiled at her.

The two of them scooted out of the booth and walked over to the counter where Ruby was scrubbing at the Formica with a renewed vigor. It didn't take a genius to know that the other woman was trying to appear busy to avoid talking to them. Emma flopped down on the stool right in front of Ruby, not fooled by the woman's act.

"So, Rubes, why exactly are we getting stared at like we're the latest freak at the circus?"

Ruby looked up at the both of them with wide eyes. "Uh, because of the last time you two ended up in here at the same time. Granny is still complaining about all the broken china."

Emma sat forward. "What?"

"And now you're both in here acting all buddy buddy again," Ruby continued. "We're all kind of waiting for shit to hit the fan."

Regina set a hand on Emma's shoulder and stepped beside her. "What do you mean, Ms. Lucas?"

"Guys, pretending it didn't happen isn't going to get you guys anywhere, you know that, right? You can't just pretend you haven't spent the last year fighting like cat and dog."

"We haven't fought more than the usual amount in the last year, Ruby." Emma cocked her head to the side, obviously confused.

"Oh, sure, just like you didn't move out six months ago. And just like Regina didn't serve you divorce papers a month after that. And of course not like the drunk calls I've gotten from you where you just complain about Regina for hours."

"Ms. Lucas, what are you talking about? I would never divorce Emma."

She heard a few snorts behind her from those looking on. She turned around and shot them all a glare before turning back to Ruby.

"Wow, you guys really are almost convincing. Look, I'm glad if you want to give it another go, that's cool, but like, pretending it didn't happen probably isn't the best start."

"Ruby, we aren't lying to you. We seriously don't remember anything you're saying. The last thing I remember before waking up this morning in a completely new apartment is dropping off Aria for her first day of school, going to work, and coming back having a perfectly normal evening and then falling asleep decidedly at home."

Regina nodded, confirming that this was what she remembered as well.

Ruby looked at the two of them, eyes narrowed, scanning the two of them intently. "You're telling the truth."

"Yeah, Rubes, that's what we've been saying the whole time." Emma cocked an eyebrow.

"How do you not remember the last year? It's not exactly something the rest of the town can forget. Jesus, when you two really fight things literally fly off the walls."

Emma and Regina blushed slightly.

"Uh, sorry?" Emma said.

"But as for why we don't remember, Ms. Lucas, that's what we were hoping someone else could tell us. We have no idea. We've cast a few spells to see if it's magical in origin, but none of my basic, broad range spells turned up anything."

Regina turned and looked over at Aria who was happily coloring on her placemat with crayons that one of the other servers had given her.

"We think that Aria might know something, but when we tried to get her to tell us she practically had a meltdown."

Ruby looked over at the little girl, thoughtful. "I dunno, but if I was the kid I'd be over the damn moon that my mothers were back together." She shrugged. "I'll ask Belle to see if she would know what could cause everything you guys are going through, but at this point I'd sort of just take it at face value. It's like you guys actually got to real life reset the game after you did something completely stupid."

Regina bit the inside of her lip. Yes, she supposed it was like that in a way. Though the fact that she got that metaphor showed that she had spent entirely too much time playing video games with Henry. A hint of a smile bloomed on her face.

"The little munchkin want pancakes?" Ruby asked.

"Of course," Emma said, smiling. "It's the breakfast of champions."

"Got it, pancakes for you too. Regina?"

"The usual, dear."

Ruby nodded. "I'll bring it over in a little bit."

Emma stood and turned towards Regina. She was wearing almost the same expression that Regina was, thoughtful and more than a little confused. How could they go from being so in love to divorced in a year? How had they let that happen?

Emma grabbed her hand and led them back to the table where Aria immediately started showing them what she'd drawn in their absence. Regina leaned into Emma's side and looked on at their daughter. She supposed they could worry about all of this later. Right now what was right in front of her mattered the most. She sat silent for most of the meal until they made their way home.

* * *

Later, Emma and Regina sat on the couch in the family room, Aria on the floor playing quietly with her rather large collection of Barbies. Regina looked on fondly. She loved her daughter and Henry more than anything else. She looked beside her at Emma who was watching the fire in front of them, teeth digging into her lip. Emma was a very, very close second to her children. Keeping all of them happy was her first priority. She didn't understand how she had let that slip through her fingers in the last year. She had no idea what lead up to their fighting in the first place.

She wished that she could remember that. She wanted something to learn from so she couldn't repeat the same mistakes. Regina was sure that someone knew the exact details of why they started fighting, probably Snow. She could get the details and then work to make sure that it never happened again. She wouldn't know what she'd do with herself if it did.

Emma looked up from the fire and met her eyes. In those green, green orbs she could see the same resolution to make it work this time. They would figure out what happened together and then they'd be stronger than ever. No words were needed to cement the plan, it just was.

Regina looked down at her daughter again. Whatever this was had something to do with her little girl. A part of her was worried about the potential price, but Aria's magic was little more than a blip on a radar. There was no way so could do anything of this magnitude. And still, no matter the worries, she was grateful that she was getting a redo. They could be a family again, even if she couldn't remember the part where they weren't. This was her happy ending. She couldn't lose it, and now she didn't have to.


End file.
